Observations, articles, opinions etc. in Dutch and English. The author, Bert de Bruin (Yonathan Dror Bar-On), is a Dutch-Jewish historian, who has specialized in modern Jewish history and in the history of the Middle East, and who in 1995 emigrated from the Netherlands to Israel. He wrote one book (2008), and edited another (2011), both in Dutch. For feedback please post a comment, or send this blog's author an email: (hisdutchname)atyahoodotcom

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

Two persons were killed and several wounded, apparently by a female suicide bomber, in the French Hill junction in northern Jerusalem.

Although, of course, each man, woman or child wounded or killed means a lot of suffering, agonizing hours of waiting, and periods of mourning, the first two things that we cyically look at are place and numbers: where was it, and was it a big or a 'small' one? If it is somewhere where you know that people dear to you work, live or travel, you get very worried and start calling them on their cellular phones. If it is in a place where as far as you know your friends and family probably do not work, live or travel, you simply follow the news via the television, or alltogether return to your daily routine. When it was a big attack, the chances of people staying glued to their television sets are higher.

While I do not really care about the terrorists and find it always hard to feel true sympathy for their families ( as opposed to the really innocent - random - Palestinian victims of Israeli violence ), especially when these families praise their sons/daughters' deeds ( which could very well be part of their way of coping with their loss ), I always wonder:

1) Is there some sort of competition between families of suicide bombers when it comes to the number of people their sons/daughters murdered? Is it considered more honorable to die having murdered ten, twenty or more bloody Zionists than it is to die having 'only' killed one or two?

2) We all know about sexually tinted promises allegedly made to ( often very young ) men when they kill themselves for the sake of Islam. What do they promise young women ( except for those who did it to save or restore some lost honor, such as the young mother who about a year ago blew herself up because she was accused of adultry )?